With his superstar outfielder set to visit Dr. James Andrews for a second opinion on his swollen left knee the following day, Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo spoke calmly about his expectations for the diagnosis before Sunday’s doubleheader. According to Rizzo, there is no reason to fear the worst regarding Bryce Harper and that getting a look by Andrews is just business as usual for an injury of his sort.

“There’s no worry about it,” Rizzo said. “It is our protocol that players get a second opinion on any part of the body that we feel is a disabled list type of injury. Guys get second opinions all the time here, and every guy that we put on the disabled list has gotten a second opinion.”

Rizzo compared Harper to other players on the team, pointing out that the process is no different.

“We send them to our team physician, he makes his diagnosis, we start the rehab, and we get a second opinion … that’s our protocol. This is no different than we [Strasburg] went out, when Detwiler went out, it’s the same thing.”

I would be very interested to know if Scott Boras may have suggested to the Nationals that a second opinion might be appropriate for his client. Mr. Boras certainly has some responsibility (not to mention a percentage of $9.9 million) with respect to the overall health of Harper.